This invention relates to deposition methods such as chemical vapor and physical vapor depositions for the production of nanostructured thin films, and in particular to the production of three-dimensional anisotropic thin films.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques are today routine technologies for the deposition of thin single and multi-layer films. These thin films are commonly used for optical, electrical, ornamental, wear resistant, and decorative applications. The films allow very small amounts of material to be deposited onto a substrate. These films allow not only a minimum of otherwise expensive materials to be used, but also enable miniaturization, enhancement of optical properties, precise electrical performance, user defined structures/morphology, and a profusion of surface specific compositions and surface treatments. However, when these conventional deposition techniques are used to deposit multiple components into a single film, the resulting film usually exhibits the lesser properties of the two components. For example, multi-layer structures which include one hard layer such as TiN (titanium nitride), and one soft layer such as gold (Au), do not exhibit the strength of TiN. Rather they are limited by the mechanical adhesive strength of the gold layer. At the same time the desired optical or electrical properties of gold are diminished due to the TiN phase. It is primarily to these difficulties in thin film fabrication methods that the present invention is directed. Other novel structures made possible by the method of the invention, including unique single component anisotropic thin films and post method deposited component films, will be further described below.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a method for fabricating three dimensional, anisotropic nanostructured thin films.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method for fabricating nanostructured wear resistant thin film coatings with anisotropic properties.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a method for fabricating sculptured nanostructures.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a method for fabricating gold nanotructured thin film coatings with anisotropic electrical conductivity properties.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method for fabricating nanostructured composite conductive films.